


Let Another Day Begin

by IprotectKennyP (dauntperplexity)



Series: Would Rather Wait for You [1]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon Compliant, Jack Zimmermann's Overdose Mention, M/M, the Q
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 09:07:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17784554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dauntperplexity/pseuds/IprotectKennyP
Summary: “So, you don’t have a soulmark either?” Kent asked as they sat on the edge of the lake, looking out at the water. They had one more day before the season officially started.In the few weeks they’ve known each other, they had become friends. Or, at least, Kent had thought so.In those few weeks, Kent had learned that Jack didn’t have a soulmark.





	Let Another Day Begin

**Author's Note:**

> It's Valentine's Day!
> 
> What better way to celebrate than a Pimms soulmate AU?

The air in the locker room had changed so drastically that it made Kent look up from tying up his skates. The room was already warm, but this was a different kind of warm. A warm that was different from a bunch of teenagers moving around a locker room as they got ready for their first practice.

This warm would never be uncomfortable.

The door to the hallway opened and in he walked.

He had to have been important to his new teammates by the way that they were talking about him. He couldn’t focus too much on what they were saying. One, they were speaking in French. And, two, he had this feeling about the guy that he couldn’t shake.

So, he stood up and walked over to introduce himself. In his skates, he was almost as tall as the tall, dark-haired, and handsome guy.

“Hi,” he said with a smile. “I’m Kent. I’m the American.” He could use that as a fact to introduce himself because there were only a few of them on the team. “We’ve met before, haven’t we?”

The other boy frowned. Not that he wasn't already frowning, but the frown deepened. The look of disdain seemed to be the boy’s default face. “I’ve never seen you before in my life.”

“Oh,” Kent said. “Okay. Well. I’m Kent. American.”

“You said that already.”

“Jack,” an older man said, appearing in the doorway.

Kent looked up and saw that the older man looked like a future version of Jack except with brown eyes instead of blue. “You’re Bad Bob Zimmermann.”

“And you’re Kent Parson,” Bob replied.

Kent stopped breathing. Bad Bob Zimmermann knew who he was. “I… sometimes?” he said when he finally remembered how to breathe. He would’ve physically slapped himself in the forehead if he had control of his limbs.

Bob just smiled. “You’re an amazing forward. I can’t wait to see what you do on Jack’s line.”

Kent looked at Jack as he walked past him and to the empty stall next to his own. They were planning on putting him on Jack’s line. There was no way they’d know that before the preseason even started.

Bob made his way over to the coaches and started talking to them which meant Kent had to go back to his skates and finishing whatever he needed to finish before the first practice started.

He sat down next to Jack and could not stop staring at him. “Are you sure that we don’t know each other?” he asked as he grabbed his tap for his stick.

“I look just like my dad,” Jack said. “You must’ve been thinking about him.” He opened up his bag and started to dress, ending the conversation.

“Right. That’s… probably it.” Kent stared for a minute before finishing up his own routine.

_/ _/ _/ _/ _X_ \\_ \\_ \ _ \\_

“So, you don’t have a soulmark either?” Kent asked as they sat on the edge of the lake, looking out at the water. They had one more day before the season officially started.

In the few weeks they’ve known each other, they had become friends. Or, at least, Kent had thought so.

In those few weeks, Kent had learned that Jack didn’t have a soulmark.

Like him.

“Yeah,” Jack said. “I don’t really like to talk about it.”

“Yeah,” Kent said. “I get that.” He leaned over and nudged him. “I don’t have one either. And look at me.” He glanced at Jack, but Jack was still looking out onto the water. “I do worry about it sometimes, though,” he admitted. “It’s weird thinking that everyone in the world has someone made for them, except me.”

“And me,” Jack said softly.

“Yeah. And you,” Kent said. He waited for Jack to turn to him. “So. I’m gonna pretend we’re soulmates. At least, hockey soulmates, until you find someone.” He was sure there was someone in the world that was made for Jack.

“Or until you find someone.”

Kent was sure that he wasn’t going to find anyone.

Or, maybe, he already had.

_/ _/ _/ _/ _X_ \\_ \\_ \ _ \\_

Jack was mad. Kent could tell, mostly because Jack’s grimace was more grimace-y than usual.

It took Kent two days of Jack bringing that deeper grimace to practice before Kent confronted him.

“What is your problem?” Kent asked. He was one of the few people on their team that could talk to Jack that way.

“I saw you kissing that guy at the party.”

Kent froze for a second before blinking and shaking his head. “I like dudes. If that’s gonna be a problem for you, you better get over it.”

Jack blinked. Then his eyes went wide. “Is that what you think I’m mad about? I don’t care who you’re kissing?”

“Then what is this even about?” Kent asked.

“Why were you even kissing that guy anyway?”

Because he had blue eyes, brown hair, and knew a handful of hockey terms. “That’s none of your damn business.”

“What, is he your boyfriend now?”

“So what if he is?”

“Is he?”

“No!” Kent yelled. “But if you keep acting weird like this, maybe I’ll ask Jake out.”

“His name is Jake?”

“I don’t know? Or Blake. Or Drake?”

“You don’t even know his name?”

“So, what if I don’t?” Kent asked.

“You're here to play hockey.”

Kent rolled his eyes. “Well, I was playing tonsil hockey with that guy,” he said with a smirk.

Kent didn’t feel nearly as victorious as he thought he’d feel as he watched Jack walk away and slam the front door to their billet house.

_/ _/ _/ _/ _X_ \\_ \\_ \ _ \\_

Kent felt much more victorious two weeks later when he was making out with Jack on his bed after winning against the number one team in their division.

_/ _/ _/ _/ _X_ \\_ \\_ \ _ \\_

“Do you ever think that the soulmate assigners made a mistake?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, if people are supposed to like have someone. Just someone that’s for them, them not giving us one kinda sucks.”

“I don’t think about it a lot anymore,” Jack said softly. “When I was younger, I did. My parents aren’t true soulmates. They have the same mark, but my mom’s is on her wrist and my dad’s is on his shoulder blade.”

“My mom’s is on the back of her neck, my dad’s was on one of his collarbones,” Kent said. “It just… I get that finding my true soulmate is hard. Which is a whole different conversation I need to have with the soulmate gods because, what the hell? Why make it so damn hard?” He sighed and reached over to grab Jack’s hand. Jack’s hand was always so warm. “It just sucks that I don’t even get the option of finding someone close, you know?”

“I had those exact thoughts when I was younger,” Jack said.

“How did you stop having those thoughts?” he asked.

Jack looked over at Kent and squeezed his hand. “I… I don’t know,” he said. “I think about hockey so much that I don’t have time to think about how lonely that means my life will be.”

Kent scooted over so that his side was pressed up against Jack’s. “Well,” he said. “I guess we can be lonely together.”

_/ _/ _/ _/ _X_ \\_ \\_ \ _ \\_

“They’re saying I could go as high as second in the draft.”

“You’ve earned it.”

“That means that I’ll be on the east coast while you’re probably going to Vegas,” Kent said softly.

“That’s usually how the draft works, Kenny,” Jack said. “We go to different teams.”

“Yeah,” Kent said. “It just… hit me. I didn’t think we’d be on the other side of the world from each other.”

“I’ll always be a phone call away, Kenny. To talk. To catch up. Just because you’ll be thousands of miles away, doesn’t mean we’ll stop being friends.”

Kent was relieved to hear it. “Same goes for you,” he said. “No matter the time. You call and I’ll be there.”

_/ _/ _/ _/ _X_ \\_ \\_ \ _ \\_

They won the championship with one minute left on the clock on a patented Parson-Zimmermann No-Look One-Timer. Kent passed the puck and got checked into the board. Jack skated to the open area, shot, and scored.

The first person Kent hugged was Jack.

The only person Kent wanted to hug was Jack.

If they weren’t wearing their helmets, they could’ve been kissing.

Then the team surrounded them.

Everyone was cheering and crying.

They were Memorial Cup Champions.

Their names would be etched together on the Cup for eternity.

_/ _/ _/ _/ _X_ \\_ \\_ \ _ \\_

That night, after the game, in the privacy of their hotel room and on Jack’s bed, Kent said three words that he’d never said to Jack before.

“I love you,” he said as Jack pulled away from the third or fourth kiss he’d given him since they got into the room.

“Kenny,” Jack said, looking into Kent’s eyes.

“I know,” Kent said quickly. “I know. You don’t… you don’t have to say it back. You don’t have to say anything, actually. You can just blame this all on the adrenaline from the win and—”

“I love you too,” Jack said softly and gently as he interrupted Kent’s ramble.

“Oh,” Kent said. Those were actually the last words he expected Jack, the Canadian Hockey Robot, to say back. “Okay.”

Jack smiled and leaned forward to kiss Kent again. “We won,” he said with a sigh.

Kent smiled into the kiss and just let Jack hold him.

They won.

_/ _/ _/ _/ _X_ \\_ \\_ \ _ \\_

Kent went to sleep and woke up next to Jack.

He would go to sleep dreaming of places he’d never been before with someone he couldn't remember, but when he woke up, it was okay because Jack was there.

“Sometimes I dream about World War I. Or the Trojan War,” Kent said softly seventeen days after winning the Memorial Cup and seventeen days before the Draft. “Do you ever dream about stuff like that?”

Jack grabbed Kent's hand and squeezed it. “You know that I like history, Kenny,” he said.

“Yeah, I know. But it’s different. Like. I dream of places I’ve never been. Like… there’s this beach with like a castle. People were speaking Spanish.” He didn’t speak Spanish, so how could he dream of a language he didn’t speak?

“Kenny,” Jack said, rolling over and pulling Kent over so he could hold him close and fall asleep. “It’s probably just a memory or something. Maybe you’re putting things together. It’s late, we need to sleep.”

Kent sighed and put his hand on Jack’s that was on his chest. “Y-yeah, okay,” he said softly. He wanted to believe Jack, but he knew it wasn’t true.

It took him three days to find the beach he saw in his dreams.

He had never been to Spain.

_/ _/ _/ _/ _X_ \\_ \\_ \ _ \\_

“There’s this lake I want to take you to if we have time,” Jack said.

“We can always just sneak away for a day,” Kent said as he finished drying his hair. He climbed into Jack’s bed and got under the blankets. “A lake?”

“It’s not a beach with a castle, but it’s one of my most favorite places in the world.”

“That isn’t a hockey rink?” Kent teased.

Jack smiled. “I don’t actually think there’s a hockey rink that cracks the top five of my favorite places,” he replied. He put his arm around Kent’s shoulders and pulled him close. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to sneak away.”

“We can always try,” Kent said. If there was anything that Kent could do to give Jack a chance to relax somehow between all the workouts and talking to agents and coaches, he wanted to do it.

“I don’t know if we’ll be able to,” Jack said softly.

“We can try.” Because Jack needed him to try.

_/ _/ _/ _/ _X_ \\_ \\_ \ _ \\_

Kent could feel Jack moving around in the dark again. “Jack,” he said softly.

“Sorry, Kenny. I’m just… I can’t sleep.”

“Three nights in a row, Zimms,” Kent said. He reached over and turned the bedside lamp on. He sat up and looked at Jack. “You’re going first. You know that right.”

“I don’t.”

“I do,” Kent said.

Jack sighed and climbed back into bed. He rested his head on Kent’s lap, curling around Kent’s body as much as he could. “Tell me another one of your stories?”

Kent smiled and ran his fingers through Jack’s hair the way that Jack would sometimes do to him. He could feel how warm his body was getting under the blankets. “Anything you want in particular?”

“Any,” he said. “Your stories are much better than watching some romance.”

Kent smiled, leaning back against the headboard. “Jack Zimmermann. Number one draft pick. Softest bro.”

“Keep that last one a secret.”

“Of course,” Kent said. He shut his eyes and sighed, trying to think of a story he could tell Jack to calm him down. He smiled when he found the perfect one to tell. Something new. “Camille had been walking around, trying to find the perfect place for her to sit down and have a coffee. She was having a difficult time because she was from France, so she had a pretty high standard for cafes and all that.

It took her another twenty minutes before she found the place to sit down. She ordered a cappuccino and a croissant.

While she waited for her food, she looked around at the people sitting around her. There was an old couple, sitting next to each other. They were probably holding hands under the table like cute, old people do.

There was a young woman with a little boy, probably her son, in her lap. He had chocolate all over his face.

She saw more couples, friends, and families sitting together.

But, across the way was the only other person that was sitting by herself. She had black hair that was down to her waist. She had a book and smiling at whatever she was reading.”

“Her name was Naomi,” Jack said softly, snuggling into Kent.

Kent held his breath. Her name was Naomi, but Jack couldn’t have known that. Maybe he was remembering something. Kent could feel Jack’s breathing even out the more he spoke.

Kent kept talking.

_/ _/ _/ _/ _X_ \\_ \\_ \ _ \\_

Kent could see Jack spiraling and Kent didn’t know what he could do. Jack was snapping and not sleeping.

He didn’t want to talk to Kent about it.

The stories weren’t working as well as he wanted them too.

Most nights, Jack would just hold Kent, and kiss him, and keep doing it until Kent fell asleep.

Those nights, Kent didn’t dream.

He could only count the days until they heard Jack’s name called first in the Draft.

_/ _/ _/ _/ _X_ \\_ \\_ \ _ \\_

Kent and Jack were back at the Colisée de Rimouski standing at center ice. On the scoreboards flashed the score of their final game.

The game they won.

Together.

Jack held Kent’s hand and squeezed. “I wanted to kiss you,” he said softly.

“You kissed me after,” Kent replied, his voice just as soft.

“No. I wanted to kiss you, in front of everyone. It would’ve made that day perfect.”

“Zimms,” Kent said. He reached up with his free hand and cupped Jack’s cheek. “You okay?”

Jack looked into Kent’s eyes before leaning forward to press their lips together. He held himself there for a minute before pulling back. “Find me in my next life, Kenny. I promise I’ll remember.”

Even though it was a dream, and even though they were on the ice, Kent hadn’t felt cold until that moment.

“You’re next… what? Jack?”

“Find me.”

_/ _/ _/ _/ _X_ \\_ \\_ \ _ \\_

Kent woke up gasping and shivering and immediately reached over to grab Jack.

Jack wasn’t there.

_/ _/ _/ _/ _X_ \\_ \\_ \ _ \\_

Kent kept pacing back and forth. He couldn’t stop moving because if he stopped, then he’d go back to seeing Jack on the bathroom floor.

He couldn’t focus on anything. He didn’t want to think about Jack. Or the Draft. Or how the doctors said that if he had found him a second later it would’ve been too late.

He just needed Jack to be okay.

He was ready to give anything and give up everything for Jack to be okay.

It was hours before Bob and Alicia were allowed to see Jack.

_/ _/ _/ _/ _X_ \\_ \\_ \ _ \\_

The Las Vegas Aces selected Kent Parson as the number one pick of the 2009 NHL Draft.

Not that it mattered to him at all.

_/ _/ _/ _/ _X_ \\_ \\_ \ _ \\_

Kent sat in the lobby, waiting to board the plane. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed Jack’s phone number. He held it to his ear, heard it ring, and listened to the automated voicemail message.

Beep.

“Hey, Jack. It’s Kent. I mean, you know it’s Kent.” He sighed and dragged his hand down his face. This was probably the ninth message he’d left Jack. None have been returned so far. “I’m heading to Las Vegas today.” Right now, actually. “Your mom and dad said that you needed some time and space to recover so that’s why I haven’t been calling all day every day or trying to find a way I can fly to Montreal. I hope you’re doing okay. Take all the time you need, okay? Just get better. Hockey will still be here.”

Kent sat up when he heard them start calling the rows for the plane.

“I just want you to know that I wasn’t lying. I’ll always be here for you, Zimms.” If Jack asked him to hop on a plane to Montreal in the middle of the season, Kent would do it. All he wanted was to hear Jack’s voice and for Jack to tell him he was okay. “All you have to do is ask.”

He sighed as he heard his row getting called to board. He stood up and grabbed his bags. He wrapped his jacket tighter around himself.

He hadn’t felt warm since he found Jack in their hotel room.

“I love you, Jack. I’ll talk to you soon.”

_X_

The soulmate assigners, as Kent had called them, watched as Kent got onto the plane and as Jack stared at the phone as the voicemail icon popped up.

They waited to see if Jack would listen to it.

Instead, he shut the phone off and put it out of sight.

This wasn’t right.

The soulmate assigners looked at each other with wide eyes.

“We made a mistake.”

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr at zimmboniandbitty.


End file.
